The Word of the Week: Unpacking the Meaning of 'Gift'

Host
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Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

Host
00:00:06

In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical words that have great significance to our faith.

Host
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The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are familiar with in scripture.

Host
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So come along with me.

Pastor Josh
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Let's study the Word of the week.

Pastor Josh
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Pastor Josh here.

Pastor Josh
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The word of the week is gift.

Pastor Josh
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This will be our third installment of looking at the word gift.

Pastor Josh
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Last week we talked about the gifts that God gives us called the spiritual gifts.

Pastor Josh
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The Bible says that all believers, when a person trusts in God, puts their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

Pastor Josh
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The Holy Spirit indwells them, and God gifts them with a gift of service.

Pastor Josh
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First Peter, chapter 4, verse 10, says, as every man hath received the gift, meaning all believers have received the gift, even so minister the same one to another.

Pastor Josh
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So the Bible says we're given a gift to serve one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Pastor Josh
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So we are stewards of God's gift.

Pastor Josh
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And it says there the manifold grace of God, meaning that there's reverence, there's differences in our gifts.

Pastor Josh
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So there might be a person that's in my church that might have a different gift than me.

Pastor Josh
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All right, so the Bible says that there is diversity in the gifts.

Pastor Josh
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And then in verse 11, it says, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.

Pastor Josh
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And so the Bible says that there are some of these ministering gifts that we're going to look at here today that are public.

Pastor Josh
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They're speaking, teaching, professing things before others in a public manner.

Pastor Josh
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But then it says if any man minister.

Pastor Josh
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So the Bible says that there are some of these gifts that might be behind the scenes, more on the avenue of, of private ministry.

Pastor Josh
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Let that person do it as it says there, of the ability of God which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified.

Pastor Josh
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So ultimately, God is glorified through Christ Jesus.

Pastor Josh
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And so that is the purpose of our gifts.

Pastor Josh
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So what I would like to do here for the next few weeks is look at these gifts, specifically the service gifts or the ministry gifts listed in Romans chapter 12.

Pastor Josh
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There are going to be many different passages of scripture that speak of God's gifts to us.

Pastor Josh
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And we know that every good gift comes from God.

Pastor Josh
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But the list, the particular list that we're going to be studying in this series is going to be found in Romans, chapter 12.

Pastor Josh
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And so I want you to go along there with me.

Pastor Josh
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And we're going to break down this list for the next few weeks and we're not going to cover all of it today, but we are going to try to cover as much as we can today.

Pastor Josh
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As we look at these gifts.

Pastor Josh
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Now, Romans chapter 12 in context is talking about presenting our bodies, a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service.

Pastor Josh
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And it talks about us not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we could follow in the will of God.

Pastor Josh
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And then the Bible goes on to say in verse 3 of Romans 12, for I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.

Pastor Josh
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So have a humble viewpoint of yourself.

Pastor Josh
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Don't live with pride, but to think soberly.

Pastor Josh
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And as it says, you know, with thinking soberly, this is being serious minded about the things of God, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Pastor Josh
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For as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office.

Pastor Josh
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And so there's this analogy of me as a believer.

Pastor Josh
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I am now just a part of the body of Christ.

Pastor Josh
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And just as the body, the physical body has many different members, so does the body of Christ.

Pastor Josh
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And so there's, there's difference in our gifts.

Pastor Josh
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Verse 5.

Pastor Josh
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So we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another.

Pastor Josh
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So he says in verse six, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.

Pastor Josh
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And so he's setting up this list that he's about to give and he's going to give some spiritual gifts that are used within the church.

Pastor Josh
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And then he also tells us how to properly exercise these gifts within the local church, within the body of believers.

Pastor Josh
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Now we're not going to have time to go through all of them here today, but what I would like to do is go through each one of these.

Pastor Josh
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And the purpose of this is to, number one, to identify what these gifts are, number two, to see how we can live out these gifts within our, our church, within our spiritual lives.

Pastor Josh
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But I would also love for you to inspect this passage of scripture and ultimately decide on which spiritual gift you believe that you are gifted with.

Pastor Josh
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Now I do want to give a disclaimer at the beginning of this.

Pastor Josh
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If you are not naturally or supernaturally gifted in one of these areas, it doesn't mean that we just throw it to the side.

Pastor Josh
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So, so we're going to talk about the idea of exhortation we're going to talk about the idea of showing mercy.

Pastor Josh
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If you aren't naturally gifted in those areas, you have to still say, you know what?

Pastor Josh
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I'm going to grow in this.

Pastor Josh
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Though I'm not gifted in this, I'm still going to try to grow in this.

Pastor Josh
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And so all of these areas to some degree are things that we can do as believers, but some of us are just going to be naturally or supernaturally gifted in these areas.

Pastor Josh
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And so that way we can work effectively in the body of Christ.

Pastor Josh
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That way we can work with more passion, more, more zeal for what God has for us within various ministries within our church.

Pastor Josh
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And so this, this group of gifts that are given Here, Romans chapter 12, are considered by many the ministering gifts.

Pastor Josh
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And you go back to that passage in First Peter, chapter four.

Pastor Josh
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The goal for these is for ministering unto those people around us, ministering for the cause of the Gospel.

Pastor Josh
00:06:07

So we see here the very first gift that's listed.

Pastor Josh
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It says whether prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.

Pastor Josh
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Now we see first and foremost the gift of prophecy.

Pastor Josh
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Now, what is the gift of prophecy?

Pastor Josh
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Well, when we hear the word prophecy, most of the time we equate that with talking about the future, predicting events that are to happen.

Pastor Josh
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And though that is one element of prophecy, we certainly see that in the Old Testament, prophesying things about Jesus, things about the future, the nation of Israel.

Pastor Josh
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We even see prophecy in the New Testament, certainly throughout the New Testament.

Pastor Josh
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And one book that is predominantly prophecy is the Book of Revelation.

Pastor Josh
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Some prophecies have been fulfilled, other prophecies have not yet been fulfilled.

Pastor Josh
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But that's just one element of that word, prophecy.

Pastor Josh
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So the Greek word translated in prophecy or prophesying just essentially means to speak forth, to speak forth truth.

Pastor Josh
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And so though it can mean speaking forth the truth of God in the future, it essentially just means speaking forth the truth of God.

Pastor Josh
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And so you, you could say it there, there is the idea of speaking forward the truth of God, but really it's speaking forth the truth.

Pastor Josh
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And so this idea of prophesying is the idea of preaching the word of God, declaring the will of God to interpret the decisions of God in accordance to his word.

Pastor Josh
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I, I would say that this is a gift that pastors hold in, in the concept of preaching forth the word of God, preaching the truth of God, thus saith the Lord.

Pastor Josh
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So, so while knowing the future can play into the idea of prophecy, it's primarily a gift of proclamation, not so much prediction.

Pastor Josh
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So, so you can have the gift of Prophecy without the gift of prediction.

Pastor Josh
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So, so there's forth telling and foretelling.

Pastor Josh
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I would, the way that I teach this is that I would say predominantly it's the gift of proclamation, forth telling.

Pastor Josh
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And so, so a pastor or a preacher, someone who's going to be getting up and speaking the truth of God to people, will declare what the Bible says.

Pastor Josh
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Hopefully that's what they are doing.

Pastor Josh
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And the Bible says that someone with this gift is able to do this with ease, or at least they're able to do this in, in a natural sense.

Pastor Josh
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They enjoy doing this.

Pastor Josh
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And so with the, the completion of the New Testament, prophesying change from declaring new revelations to now proclaiming what has already been given us in the Word.

Pastor Josh
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You know, obviously in, in the New Testament, in the Book of Acts and other places, they did not have the complete canon of Scripture.

Pastor Josh
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They did not have the complete revealed Word of God.

Pastor Josh
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So therefore they had to prove things by prophesying and speaking forth the truth of what's going to happen.

Pastor Josh
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And those would happen.

Pastor Josh
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But now the Word of God has been validated in the fact that we have the complete canon of Scripture.

Pastor Josh
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And so now the job of someone who was prophesying is to speak forth the truth of God in accordance to His Word, not extra biblical revelations.

Pastor Josh
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We know that in Scripture it warns us against adding or subtracting from Scripture.

Pastor Josh
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And we even know that the Bible says that there are going to be false prophets.

Pastor Josh
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So these are going to be people who are speaking forth not the truth, but lies.

Pastor Josh
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And so there can be true prophesying and there can be false prophesying.

Pastor Josh
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And so we know that as Christians today, there is an importance to this within the local body of believers because we need to hear the truth.

Pastor Josh
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And so I, I would venture to say that most of us would want to hear the truth of God.

Pastor Josh
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If you're listening to this podcast, I hope that's your desire.

Pastor Josh
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And so the way that the truth of God is presented today is through, obviously you could read the scriptures on your own, but it is given through preachers and, and evangelists and, and different folks that are going to be prophesying in the name of God through His Word.

Pastor Josh
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And so if you enjoy reading the Word of God, studying the Word of God and then sharing the Word of God in, in the context and in the interpretation of Scripture.

Pastor Josh
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I would say that, hey, you might be someone who has been gifted with the gift of prophecy.

Pastor Josh
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I, I would say that the gift of prophecy, and we're going to talk about another gift here, a little bit later.

Pastor Josh
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The gift of teaching, they're, they're simultaneously linked in many ways because part of teaching is proclaiming the word of God.

Pastor Josh
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So thus saith the Lord.

Pastor Josh
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So, so many times it's explaining what the truth of God is and then explaining how we can grow in understanding of that truth.

Pastor Josh
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And so simply the gift of prophecy is the gift of speaking forth the, the truth.

Pastor Josh
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And so we, we see that there in Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, verse 6.

Pastor Josh
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If someone is gifted in the gift of prophecy, it says, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.

Pastor Josh
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Now that's an interesting concept to think about there, but what is it saying?

Pastor Josh
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Well, essentially what we're seeing here in this case is that there is a proper way to proclaim the truth of God.

Pastor Josh
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There is an appropriate way to proclaim the truth of God, and then there also is a way of proclaiming the word of God in a false manner.

Pastor Josh
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And I think it's important for us to practice godly counsel, godly guidance, and how we proclaim the truth of God.

Pastor Josh
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So God might give us something to say as an individual that might stretch out to the church body.

Pastor Josh
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But, but it might even stretch our own faith if, if we cannot preach in faith.

Pastor Josh
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That means it basically as I'm proclaiming the word of God, if I'm not doing it in trusting God, we shouldn't do it at all.

Pastor Josh
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That's what he's saying here.

Pastor Josh
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To do it in the proportion of faith, do it with faith.

Pastor Josh
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So proclaim the truth of God as you believe it.

Pastor Josh
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Don't, don't be preaching something that you don't believe, even though it might be hard to believe.

Pastor Josh
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It's going to stretch our faith.

Pastor Josh
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And so we're reminded that preaching the, the word of God takes faith.

Pastor Josh
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And so this is the teaching for those folks that are gifted in this area of prophecy.

Pastor Josh
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I believe that Paul might be even cautioning folks that are, that are preaching to, to get it together in their minds and in their own hearts what they believe before they even bring it to the folks that they are preaching to.

Pastor Josh
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So, so other people take the proportion of faith to be, maybe even in regards to the audience like, okay, so be careful on who you're preaching to.

Pastor Josh
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But I think personally the way that I interpret this passage is that's talking about the one who's proclaiming this truth to have faith in what they are saying, believe in what they are saying, believe in the Lord, believe in that teaching, that, that proclamation of the truth of God.

Pastor Josh
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So that takes hard work.

Pastor Josh
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That takes Study, that takes courage, that takes boldness.

Pastor Josh
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And so I would encourage you to inspect your life, to say, you know, is that me?

Pastor Josh
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And this isn't just for preachers within the church.

Pastor Josh
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I mean, you can preach in your workplace, you can preach in your home, you can preach in the community.

Pastor Josh
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So this isn't only in the formal setting of a church service behind a pulpit, but I would encourage you to think about, you know, is that something that God has given me in, in a desire?

Pastor Josh
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Because I will say that most of the gifts that God gives us, he also links a desire to that gift.

Pastor Josh
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So if you desire to preach, you desire to proclaim the truth of God, there might be a great chance that you are gifted in the gift of prophecy.

Pastor Josh
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And then the next step would be, am I going to do this in faith?

Pastor Josh
00:14:19

It's not performative.

Pastor Josh
00:14:21

It's not getting up in front of people and making sure that all my intonations are right.

Pastor Josh
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And it's very rehearsed.

Pastor Josh
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No, there is this element of trusting in the Lord and believing in what we are going to preach.

Pastor Josh
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And so there is the gift of a prophecy.

Pastor Josh
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Next week, we're going to look at the gift of ministry or service.

Pastor Josh
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Some people are gifted in that area of serving others, and I would encourage you to come back and listen to that one as well.

Pastor Josh
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We're going to go through each one of these gifts here as we do this study.

Pastor Josh
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And I would encourage you to inspect your own life, expect your desires, inspect your call, and see where God has you to fit into your community, your church, your world.

Pastor Josh
00:15:07

So thank you again this week for following along with us.

Pastor Josh
00:15:10

We've studied the spiritual gifts and started with the gift of prophecy, the gift of proclamation, the gift of preaching.

Pastor Josh
00:15:16

So looking forward to talking to you next week.

Pastor Josh
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Looking forward to bringing forth another spiritual gift that we can all understand and grow in in our lives.

Pastor Josh
00:15:24

Well, we hope that you have a great rest of your week.

Pastor Josh
00:15:27

We will talk to you next week.

Pastor Josh
00:15:30

Have a wonderful day.

Host
00:15:31

Hey, I really appreciate that you listen to the Word of the Week podcast.

Host
00:15:35

If you have any questions about the podcast or about our church, Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us on Facebook or YouTube or you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org you can contact me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.org stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper into words that impact our life according to scripture.

Pastor Josh
00:16:01

Thank you so much.

Host
00:16:02

God bless.

Host
00:16:03

We'll talk to you soon.